In 2008, the Cuban state finally ended the ban on the ability of Cuban nationals to stay in their own country’s hotels. Despite its obvious political ironies and ideological absurdity, the ban had been in place since 1991 when the government turned the entire tourist industry into the main engine of state revenue after the fall of the Soviet Union. Outraged that the Revolution was supposed to have made “Cuba for the Cubans”, citizens rebuked leaders by calling the policy “tourist apartheid”, a reference to South Africa’s system of racial discrimination and Fidel Castro’s supposed condemnation of it. Because I “looked Cuban”, I also found myself subject to harassment by hotel police and guards every time I had to enter a hotel or tourist facility from 1995 to 2008. It was always worse for women. One could expect poor treatment in these spaces, ostensibly because of the security and staff’s gendered training: since most Cuban women naturally lacked the money to pay for anything there, the only reason we allegedly had to be in a hotel lobby or bar was to solicit clients for sex work. Not surprisingly, Cubans (including myself) persevered and fought back. Notably, by 2006, most staff and guards still stopped us on the way in, but instead of barring our path, they asked: Está aquí para consumir? [Are you here to consume?] Consuming was okay, but staying at the hotel was still banned—and then the policy was reversed! Simultaneously, the Obama administration negotiated to open an American-owned Four Points Sheraton in Havana. While I had rarely stayed in a state hotel out of solidarity with Cuban citizens, I could not resist finally taking my goddaughters to Cuba’s only American hotel in 2016! As is evident from the raw delight and joy on their and my son’s faces, it was a trip of a lifetime.
